Safety, Security, Fuel Economy, Finances, Lifestyle and more…
Based on the theory that it takes only a couple of seconds of parental inattention around a car for a child to die or be injured, two parents have started a program aimed to focus adult minds on the danger. The Zero Seconds campaign hopes to remind adults that the mix of children and cars requires their full attention all the time.
This is one of the best and most extensive accounts of a car crash ever written, and it gives extensive insight into how easy it is for a collision to happen and what it means for the participants over time. Mary Wybrow’s story should make every woman think about how precious and fleeting life can be.
A New York writer uses a new book called Traffic to make it clear that automotive safety is a lot more complicated than some the government, the car companies and the media would lead you to believe.
On the face of it the Better World Club (BWC) seems to be a greener version of the classic roadside assistance company, but the smart consumer will take care to look at the small print closely. The same goes for what the AAA is up to with regard to its views on public transit. But the most important thing for the average driver might be who has the best plan for getting your broken-down car back on the road.
Seven women’s experiences on a website called Women Against Shariah make it clear what it’s like for females in Egypt just trying to live their lives.
A dispute involving a one-year-old girl sent her mother, her father and her father’s girlfriend into their cars and a bumper-car battle that ended in the “adults” arrests. The child was unrestrained during the whole struggle. The mother was 17, the girlfriend 20 and the father 22. Various charges were laid
The European-designed Vue crossover that joined the Saturn lineup last year will soon have a pair of hybrid systems on offer, helping the brand cover two different sets of demands and budgets.
You don’t have to be going very fast in a small car to do a lot of damage, a study by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) makes clear. For example, if you hit something (like the wall in a parking garage) with the rear end of a Prius going just 6 mph it’s likely going to cost you around $4,000 to repair the Toyota hybrid.
In an effort to keep the public straight on its products, current and coming, General Motors has set up a website called GM Facts And Fiction. The site makes the case for the company’s ability to build fuel-efficient cars that earn critical acclaim and its plans to re-invent the automobile.
It’s one of those depressing stories about how the legal system doesn’t seem to regard the abuse of women as being as important as the theft of property.
Giving birth in a car on the way to hospital has long been a popular dramatic/comedic staple in TV and films, but apparently it still happens in the real world. An amazing bit of luck saved this Chicago-based story from going wrong.
A young mother in Toronto was pulled over by police for going twice the legal speed limit through a school zone (63 instead of 30) recently and told the officer she was simply hurrying home to pick up her son so she could take him to daycare. What can you say to that?
Because most dogs love being in the car so much, lots of owners don’t put them in safety belts so they can stand up and look out the window. Well, now there’s a pet booster seat that keeps little dogs elevated and secure. The picture with the story makes it all clear.
Lots of people think the current fascination with smaller cars is a temporary aberration, that the market will go back to big cars when gas prices decline or settle or people decide what else to give up (those $8 designer coffees, for example) or something. But the chief planner for Ford’s global product division says it’s not so. He says this is a paradigm shift to more sensible cars, and he asked a mob of auto writers flown to Holland for the occasion to believe him.
It has always irritated Honda that arch-rival Toyota gets most of the glory in hybrid history for the Prius when it was Honda that offered the first dual-drive car — the Insight. So Honda’s looking forward to getting some of its own back with the return of the Insight brand, this time with five seats and a price below that of the Prius. And the story shows that not everyone’s mature enough to leave Bristol Palin alone.
A faith-based organization has set up a program to help needy women get car repairs that can keep them on the road.
A man who struck out with some women in a donut store later tried to run them over with his car. Police arrested him and, needless to say, liquor was involved. He is now facing attempted murder charges.
The folks who make products for young children support a bunch of activities that promote installing a child seat correctly and other things and we are in favor of that, but we would like to point out that there’s more to vehicle safety than a well-installed child seat. So parents are encouraged by us to take a more pro-active position by trying to get ready for all the threats that might strike your family.
The folks at Consumer Reports aren’t always reliable in their findings, but they certainly got it right when they named the Saturn Vue Green Line the best hybrid model available for consumers wanting to save money on gas.
Struggling Chrysler has added its name to the long list of companies that say they’re working on cars that run on batteries (either solely or in conjunction with a gas-powered engine) and can be recharged by plugging them into a regular wall socket. What’s different here is that the company will share this technology with its Jeep brand so that people who like to go off-road can benefit.
The familiar lesson here is that you always have to be on guard when you’re in your car, and the new lesson is that apparently there are cretins everywhere.
You’d think any clothes made from stuff you’d find in a car (even a hybrid) would look like costumes from the Mad Max movies (a sadly overlooked trilogy of great films), but that’s not what happened on a recent episode of Project Runway. This post goes into more detail, and you can always catch up on the show in RerunLand or probably YouTube.
As part of its effort to show it really does know how to build cars that don’t use much gas, GM recently introduced an XFE (for Xtra Fuel Economy) designation on some of its vehicles. The most popular model, the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt XFE LS, comes with hand-cranked windows and doors that don’t open remotely so GM could leave out the motors and things they need to operate. Less weight means better fuel economy, you see. It also lowers the assembly cost, so the sticker can go down as well.
The scam artists keep coming up with new ways of cheating motorists but fortunately the method of dealing with it remains the same, as this article explains.
The Japanese firm says it will develop lots of new vehicles with fuel-saving hybrid technology, but they’ll all be smaller vehicles. Most other companies are putting hybrids in bigger vehicles to improve their fuel ratings because it does more for the environment and their profit margins.
The ability to tell your car what song you want or what precise address you want to go rather than keying that information into a keypad should help with auto safety, a European study claims. The benefit of course is the reduction in the level of distraction for the driver. Speech technology that would make this possible has been on the horizon for a long time, of course, but now they really mean it.
Well, Theodore P. Olson (Ted) certainly thinks we should, and he has a great long list of reasons to support the idea. The trouble is, it’s pretty hard to understand his case with any clarity, as you’ll see when he visit his blog. For example, he notes that “You strength attain it, but wouldn’t ya kinda study a reciprocation cop.”
You have to read it yourself to fully understand the drama that resulted when a woman tried to move a Toyota Prius (which she calls a “travesty of an automobile”) for her friend in LA, but it’s certainly worth the time.
Fixing cars for a living is still overwhelmingly a job done by men, but when a woman does move into auto service it seems to work out well. It certainly did for this young woman in Connecticut.
If you’ve got a spare 30 seconds, check out this funny little video for the Sci-Fi network that shows what the perfect car for women will be like in the future.
Though motorcycles hold pretty much the same status on the road as a car or truck, they have enough different qualities that they need to be treated differently by the careful driver.
A man who constantly reminded his wife of the need to practice safe-driving techniques was killed when a car being chased by the police crashed into his car. This opens up at least two issues, including the value of police chases and the sad reality that trouble can strike you on the road no matter how careful you are.
Cars that have endless problems are called “lemons” and there are programs pretty much everywhere in the US designed to help the consumer if she gets one. This story provides a general overview of the situation and a link to the various agencies involved.
An auto writer has finally noticed that the emissions coming from scooters and motorcycles is much worse than that of any car on the road, but there’s still the fact that they’re a lot cheaper to buy and operate than a car.
The long-time host of the Tonight show and noted car geek takes a Chevrolet Equinox with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell for a spin, spreading laughs and information as he goes. This is auto journalism you can understand and enjoy.
